ILLW has a strong commitment

Registrations in the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend were higher this year from the major seafaring nations of Australia, England and Germany, adding to growth from Bulgaria, Canada, Cuba, France, Portugal and Scotland. The ILLW on August 15-16 had 506 registrations, from 32 countries, down on 2014, but seemingly reflecting the prevailing political and economic trends.

The magic number 500 registration was from Michael Sealfon WA2OCG at Alki Point Lighthouse, which provided both a light and fog horns at the southern entrance to Seattle’s Elliott Bay in Washington USA. An outstanding result came from Cuba that had 13 registrations, and may be due to the normalisation of its relationship with the USA.

A lot of good fun was had, with some having heightened public interest in the history of old navigation structures and Amateur Radio. More reports and photos are welcome on both the ILLW Facebook page and the website. Typical of the DX that can be worked was Cape Wickham Lighthouse on King Island and Glenn Alford VK3ILW portable VK7, with an ICOM 775 transceiver into a Cushcraft R5 vertical. Although acknowledging he had a good location, there were at times dogpiles with notable contacts being to the Canary Islands, Cuba, Baltic Islands, Guatemala, Europe, USA, Alaska, Australia and New Zealand.

The many media mentions included ABC radio that told listeners at Geraldton in West Australia that it achieved a world first record for the most people hugging a lighthouse. The red and white candy-striped Point Moore Lighthouse north of Perth built in 1878, had more than 1,000 turn out for the world-record ranking embrace. As part of ILLW made possible by Ron Fisher VK6MP, the doors were open to allow a unique glimpse inside.

Also in West Australia emerged the newly formed Capes Lighthouse Radio Group. Now Cape Leeuwin Light VK6CLL and Cape Naturaliste Light VK6CNL are the club callsigns, following a long tradition of activating those lighthouses. Already 19th annual Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend on August 20-21, 2016, has 30 registrations. For simple guidelines and other information visit the website www.illw.net or click this Link

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